Billy Davis, the Detroit songwriter and producer turned advertising executive,
has died at age 72 at his home in New Rochelle, New York, following a
lengthy illness. He was predeceased by his wife, Patricia Hardy, who died
in 2003, and is survived by his son, Shawn, and his sister, Gladys Adams.

Early in his career, he worked with a number of R&B stars, writing
and producing hit records, notably for Jackie Wilson, and subsequently
for Motown and Chess, two of the most significant labels in the history
of black American music. Later, Davis helped to write one of the most
famous TV jingles of the 1970s, 'I'd Like To Buy The World A Coke', and
went on to become a senior figure in the American advertising industry.

Roquel (Billy) Davis was born on July 11th, 1932, in Detroit, where he
attended Northern High School, Wayne State University and the Maurice
King School of Music. His early musical experience had its roots in that
city, with its vigorous scene, and in his extended family. "My career
started early, singing on street corners," he said in an interview.
"There was a doo-wop group for every neighborhood and talent shows
every week." In the early 1950s, a cousin, Lawrence Payton, started
a group called the Four Aims. Davis, who acted as their manager, recorded
a demo of them singing his songs 'Kiss Me Baby', 'Could It Be You' and
'All My Life', and sent them to the Chicago-based Chess Records. Although
Chess was more enthusiastic about Davis's original material than the group
itself, it signed the Four Aims to the label in 1956, changing their name
to the Four Tops to avoid confusion with the Ames Brothers. The company
released one Davis-penned single by the group, but it flopped, and they
soon returned to Detroit. Chess gave several of his compositions to its
other artists, including 'See Saw', a hit for the Moonglows, and 'A Kiss
From Your Lips', recorded by the Flamingos.

Back in Detroit, Davis began dating Gwen Gordy, the sister of rising
local songwriter and entrepreneur, Berry Gordy Jr. Using the pseudonym
Tyran Carlo, he and Berry Gordy began writing songs, including 'Reet Petite',
'Lonely Teardrops', 'That's Why (I Love You So)', 'To Be Loved' and 'I'll
Be Satisfied', all hits for Jackie Wilson, another of Davis's cousins.
At first, writing for Wilson was reward enough in itself. "We didn't
even know we were supposed to be paid," he told The Detroit News
last year. When Davis and Gordy finally asked for money, it caused a break
with Wilson's manager, and the two struck out on their own.

In 1958, Davis and Gwen Gordy started Anna Records, named after another
of the Gordy sisters, while Berry Gordy followed suit with the Tamla label
the following year. The Tyran Carlo/Berry Gordy songwriting partnership
continued with numbers like the Miracles' 'Got A Job', 'Jim Dandy Got
Married' by LaVern Baker, 'Who Wouldn't Love A Man Like That' by Mabel
John and 'You Got What It Takes', a big hit for Marv Johnson late in 1959.
Davis and Gordy also jointly managed the Miracles and Marv Johnson. Barrett
Strong's 'Money (That's What I Want)' was released first by Tamla, and
then on the Anna label, which enjoyed better distribution via Chess, resulting
in a national hit. Eventually, the Anna label and its artists were absorbed
by Motown.

When, in 1960, Etta James recorded 'All I Could Do Was Cry', another
Carlo/Gordy song, its success prompted Davis's switch to Chess to head
up their A&R department. Other Billy Davis compositions cut by Etta
James would include 'Seven Day Fool', 'Pushover', ''Pay Back', 'Two Sides
(To Every Story)' and 'In The Basement', a duet with Sugar Pie DeSanto.
Chess, which had been strongly associated with the blues via the likes
of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, was looking to shift into the emerging
soul market: Billy Davis was its man. His first role at the company was
running the short-lived Check-Mate label out of Detroit, releasing singles
by many artists that would later find fame at Motown. Davis relocated
to Chicago in 1962 and set about building for Chess an in-house team of
writers, arrangers, producers and musicians. During the mid-'60s he produced
and/or wrote many great recordings by the Dells, Billy Stewart, Mitty
Collier, Jackie Ross, Litttle Milton, the Gems (from which sprang Minnie
Riperton), Tony Clarke, Laura Lee, Jan Bradley, Joy Lovejoy and many others.
He had his biggest hit in 1965 when he produced Fontella Bass's classic
'Rescue Me', modelled closely on the Motown sound.

These records caught the attention of the McCann-Erickson Agency in New
York, who tempted Davis to join them in 1968. Soul music's loss was the
advertising world's gain. The company was one of the first to take pop
music seriously as a way to sell consumer goods. Davis helped create a
jingle for Coca Cola based on 'Mom, True Love And Apple Pie', a song by
British writers Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway. Recorded under the title
'I'd Like To Buy The World A Coke', the song was a failure when it was
first played on the radio in 1971, but when it was re-recorded for a television
spot, this time sung by an enormous children's chorus, it caught on. Later,
Davis rewrote it as 'I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing (In Perfect Harmony)',
as recorded by the Hillside Singers and the New Seekers. His other successful
jingles included 'It's The Real Thing', 'Have A Coke And A Smile', 'Coke
Is It' and 'Things Go Better With Coke', as well as others for Nescafé,
Miller Beers, Sony and Nabisco. He eventually rose to senior vice-president
and music director at McCann-Erickson.

But Pepsi, not Coca Cola, was the beverage of choice when he was a teenager,
he told the Detroit Free Press, because a Pepsi Cola was a nickel, while
it took two to buy a Coke.

(Compiled by Mick Patrick from various online obituaries and other
sources, including the books Chicago Soul by Robert Pruter [University
Of Illinois Press, 1991] and To Be Loved [Headline Books, 1994], the autobiography
of Berry Gordy, Jr.)